Women travellers

Today I 'visited' my favourite part of the world through Annemarie Schwarzenbach´s photos from Iraq, Iran (Persia), Afghanistan, Syria... Black and white photos of men, women, children, landscapes, monuments (some lost...), streets, shops. And beautiful passages from her diaries and other reports.

Afghanistan, 1939

"Escaping to this valley, one finds oneself at the end of all roads, separated from the world by high mountain chains, surrounded, protected, a high and tranquil valley; its nights are cold...".

While visiting the exhibition, at the Berardo Museum, I remembered how it had fascinated me reading Gertrude Bell´s biography as a teenager. Things come together in a funny way, marking us for ever, it seems.

References like "the journey as exile" and "an escape forward" ring a very familiar bell...

Left: Annemarie Schwarzenbach
Right: Gertrude Bell